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HIV: How Science Shaped the Ethics
Author(s) -
Woloschak Gayle E.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
zygon®
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-9744
pISSN - 0591-2385
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9744.00489
Subject(s) - apprehension , disease , medicine , infectious disease (medical specialty) , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , medical science , ethical issues , family medicine , medical ethics , intensive care medicine , engineering ethics , psychology , medical education , pathology , psychiatry , engineering , cognitive psychology
AIDS is a debilitating and fatal disease that was first identified as an infectious disease syndrome in the 1970s. The discovery of a nearly universally fatal infectious and rapidly spreading disease in the post–antibiotics era created apprehension in the medical community and alarm in the general population. Questions about how patients should be handled in medical and nonmedical settings resulted in the ostracizing of many AIDS patients and inappropriate patient management. Scientific investigation into modes of disease transmission and control helped to shape the management of AIDS patient care in such a way that ethical and protective practices could be developed. In this article I discuss some of the ethical questions that were addressed by appropriate scientific inquiry.